This weekend I traveled incognito to CanGames (Ottawa’s gaming convention) under the clever guise of “Conrad Albatross” to see if I could get the inside scoop on Ottawa’s gaming underground. I arrived at the convention center at around 2 pm on Saturday and was instructed to enter through the back door. My accomplice handed me my pass and I began my surveillance of the convention.

On first glance, it appeared to be a gamers paradise: miniatures, role-playing books, and boardgames as far as the eyes could see, but on a closer look it revealed something else… something I’d like to call “mad dealz.” “Mad dealz” is a term you use to describe an excess amount of savings to products you’d normally pay out the nose for. I was immediately drawn to the tables where I could find plenty of old Dungeons and Dragons books. These conventions bring product of the highest, and sometimes rarest quality, and today was no different. Toys on Fire brought its usual, enormous selection of board games (probably the largest in the city) and the prices killed the convention market, as usual. I quickly began to lighten my pockets.

After buying the weight equivalent to a small car in books, I quickly turned my attention to my second mission: finding “mad Warhammer dealz.” I was armed with $120 to get as much on the list as possible for our beloved Stephen- and ending up spending $180. Yes, the “dealz” were this “mad.” These conventions always somehow end up being tax-free, it was amazing.

As the show was winding down our friend Bill showed up after his job to take a look at some “mad dealz” at the show as well. As we all got our fill, Alex and I hopped in Bill’s stretch SUV limo thing and took a ride. That’s right, a DANG (forgive the pun, Dang) LIMO! It had a TV and an intercom, and crazy lights, and beverages, and EVERYTHING. BIG FAT TIRES AND EVERYTHING! I was King of the Town in that limo. Muchos gracias, Bill. We owe you one.

All in all, it was a lot of fun meeting up with our toy/hobby retail brethren, and local hobbyists to nerd out for an afternoon now it’s time for me to go back to being cool.

Why are you laughing? I’m cool, I swear!

I mean, I’m playing D&D tonight, but that doesn’t mean anything! I have an assortment of leather jackets!

…fine, don’t believe me? I’ll just put a HEX ON YOU! Or maybe a plague! A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!

Conrad “the Hitman” AlbatRoss. Chris.

Tags: Board Games, CanGames, Conventions, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Toys on Fire Ottawa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.